Cheese filled foreskin is my favorite offensive term.

Nice. The phrase "cheesy knob wank" was v. popular in my peergroup at Uni for a while.

"cheesy knob wank"

That's fabulous. I'm stealing it for my own personal use.

Aaaah. So nice to laugh.

He said that's supposed to be so offensive. Being called a woman's vagina.

That may be the etymology, but I really don't think "vagina, call him a vagina, that'll show him" is the thought process now.

Swear filters piss me off, so much

They piss me off most when I'm quoting from a script (for fucksake, an aired script!) and I'm reduced to posting "ba$tard" Grrrrrr!

Heh. My friend had an e-mail of mine bounced back because I'd called her husband a "cocksucker who pissed my shit right the hell off"

I got an e-mail from her asking if I was being a "dirty birdie."

"cheesy knob wank"

Anything with wank in it is an automatic bestseller.

"motherfucker" is one I never use. It squicks me. But I realise that's just me.

edited to add

I got an e-mail from her asking if I was being a "dirty birdie."

Oh, Heather, that sounds like something a rules girl would say.

That may be the etymology, but I really don't think "vagina, call him a vagina, that'll show him" is the thought process now.

It always seemed to me like the slightly more grown-up version of little kids on the playground insulting boys by calling them girls. (I remember being in second or third grade and trying to tell my friends that they were insulting themselves by putting the annoying boys in the "girl" category. Then they decided that the five of us should play four-square.)

And, she totally would be if she weren't friends with me. I don't think they allow you to keep friends like me if you're a RG. Hazzardous to your health or something.

You know. Can't snag that simpering man if you're head's on a pike somewhere.

That may be the etymology, but I really don't think "vagina, call him a vagina, that'll show him" is the thought process now.

Totally agree that there's no conscious "Ah, I will choose the word 'cunt' because it refers to girly bits and will therefore emasculate him! Go Me!" thought process. But it's worth noticing that an awful lot of the really powerful terms of contempt/obsenity refer to women or the female anatomy. It's an insidious thing & a not-consciously-recognised thing, I think, but it's still powerful. (There's really no bloody wonder I'm all over subtext, is there?)

It's like the way that words with identical denotations often get their connotations corrupted over time so that the feminine version becomes sexual and eventually contemptuous/insulting. eg master/mistress, working man/working 'girl', courtier/courtesan etc etc.

eta .....or, "What Hil said."

You know. Can't snag that simpering man if you're head's on a pike somewhere.

Or, less decapitatedly, you're too hung over to be bothered with make-up and stockings.

It always seemed to me like the slightly more grown-up version of little kids on the playground insulting boys by calling them girls.

Maybe, on an extreme level. Of course, most men are just little boys, so they'd probably call another guy a poofter or a sheila.

I hear cunt to have a more malicious tone. Someone that is driving too slow is a dickhead, someone that deliberately cuts you off? would probably be a cunt.

I realise that I'm kinda married to the driving analogies today. I think that's because that's when I hear most people swear most.

erm.. natter, what natter? We're too busy lowering community standards so no one's mellow is ever harshed again to natter.

(I edit because I now realise I'm too dependent upon the preview boxes. My bad.)